Award Given to Venezuela Coup Leader

Attached is a copy of a press statement from the Global Women’s Strike, protesting the outrageous decision of the Inter-American Economic Council to present an award on January 29 in Washington DC to Gustavo Cisneros, a leader of the coup against President Chavez, as a man who has “consistently sought to create an environment where business and government can work together in meaningful ways for the betterment of society.” To add insult to injury, they have selected Henry Kissinger to present the award. The award is being given at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW January 29, 2004 beginning at 6:30pm. Please circulate this statement as widely as you can to your networks. Please say how you can also protest this atrocity.





Phoebe Jones, Margaret Prescod and Nina Lopez for the Global Women's Strike

philly [at] crossroadswomen.net
215-848-1120



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Press statement …. Press statement….Press statement….
Contact: Phoebe Jones, Global Women's Strike 215-848-1120, philly [at] crossroadswomen.net




Women protest US award to Venezuelan coup leader


The Global Women’s Strike condemns the outrageous decision of the Inter-American Economic Council to honor Gustavo Cisneros at its 2004 Winter Gala tonight – it shows once more the total contempt of the US administration for people’s right to elect their own government. To recognize as a person who “has consistently sought to create an environment where business and government can work together in meaningful ways for the betterment of society,” a man who has systematically used his corporate wealth and media monopoly to illegally and violently attempt to force from office the democratically-elected government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is particularly cynical. It is women in particular who elected and have overwhelmingly defended President Chavez, and women from the poorest areas who have most to gain from and have been most involved in the economic and social reforms Venezuela is undertaking to tackle poverty and corruption despite constant coup and assassination attempts from the likes of Cisneros.

The award is being given at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW January 29, 2004, beginning at 6:30pm.



Gustavo Cisneros’ record is one of working for the “betterment” of the white, racist elite of Venezuela against the interests of the vast majority of Venezuelans who are people of color, and who, in oil-rich Venezuela, were left mired in poverty after 40 years of rule by the Venezuelan elite:

§ He played a leading role in the bloody April 11, 2002 coup d’etat against the government of President Hugo Chavez – a coup planned and carried out with the support of the US administration. The coup was defeated within days by millions of grassroots people taking to the streets to demand the return of their elected President and constitution.

§ He was a leader in the Dec 2002-Feb 2003 nationwide big-corporations’ lock out aimed at forcing President Chávez from office, which brought more suffering to grassroots Venezuelans. Again, grassroots people, starting with the oil workers themselves worked overtime to save their valuable resource, and defeated the new attempt of overthrowing President Chavez.

§ He has used his media power in relentless campaigns of lies, disinformation, distortion and racist insults against President Chavez and his supporters. On the day of the coup he even used his television station, Venevision, as the meeting place for top coup supporters, reportedly including the dictator illegally installed as President, Pedro Carmona.

§ The Cisneros Group has been implicated in the December 2003 illegal shipment of US$2.5 million in cash seized aboard an American Airlines flight from Miami Florida to Caracas, no doubt intended to help finance another attempted coup against the Venezuelan people.

§ Gustavo Cisneros personally spoke with the U.S. State Department's former Latin American Affairs Chief, Otto Reich and the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro (currently under fire for hosting a puppet show ridicule of President Chávez in his home in Caracas) on the day of the coup, an event reported in Newsweek Magazine (see Newsweek, April 29, 2002, p.10).




To add insult to injury, Henry Kissinger will be presenting this obscene award. Kissinger is himself a war criminal and a man reviled all over Latin America, the Caribbean and the world for leading the CIA overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. He justified the coup which led to the disappearances of thousands of people and the exile of hundreds of thousands with the infamous statement: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." Kissinger is also responsible for similar US policies in Indonesia and Cyprus. He recently had to withdraw his appointment by President Bush to head a commission investigating 9/11 because his reputation was too unsavory to give any credibility to the findings. He cannot travel to many countries for fear of arrest.



However these are not the only voices coming out of Latin America. From January 29 to February 9, Nora Castañeda, one of the foremost leaders of the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela, will be in the US to provide people here with the truth about what is going on there and in much of Latin America. Nora Castañeda, appointed by President Chavez to head the Women’s Development Bank, will visit major cities across the US to speak on, “Creating a caring economy in Venezuela”. The tour is coordinated by the Bolivarian Circle of the Global Women’s Strike whose central demand is the return of military budgets, starting with the over $400 billion US budget, to “Invest in Caring, not in killing”. The GWS has organized this tour and supports the Venezuelan process because in the words of Nora Castañeda, ”We believe that the economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings at the service of the economy. We want to create an economy based on cooperation and mutual support, a caring economy. …. We are building a different way of life.” Contrast this to the high priests of death giving and receiving awards at the Inter-American Economic Council on January 29th.

Sponsors of the Castaneda tour include: Vanguard Foundation; KPFK Radio; Danny Glover; Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte; Dolores Huerta; Greg Palast. For further info: http://globalwomenstrike.net